Diversion Diversion - the Router Ad-Blocker

[M@rco]

As for the logs - this appears to be saved to the router 'drive' - is there a way to save the logs on the external flash drive instead? Do I need to leave this running in the SSH Terminal or can I 'exit Diversion' and it stays running? Is there an easy test to see if it's working? I suppose any Google ad served site will do achieve that.

dnsmasq.log is saved to your usb drive, in /opt/var/log to be precise. '/opt' links to ' /tmp/opt', which points to your usb drive. dnsmasq.log is the logfile you're 'tailing' when viewing the log with f in Diversion. It'll continue to log regardless whether you have an SSH session. You can just exit Diversion, it will still do it's wonderful job by remaining active in the background. Following the log (from within Diversion) can be very useful though whenever you feel something is blocked and you want to see what to whitelist.

If this works well, this is so awesome I will just leave VPN running permanently on my mobile to route back through this (assuming the VPN doesn't bypass Diversion).

If you have 'Advertise DNS to clients' enabled in your VPN Server settings, you'll have adblocking on to go, powered by Diversion

 

[bitmonster]

Nice.. .I'll look out for that option then... Thanks!!!
Where does the blocklist come from? I ran a few test sites and wow it really works!

 

[Skeptical.me]

This thing is incredible!! OMG I am so in love with this router, why didn't I do this sooner.. I was so happy to see it even included an option to create a Swap file for me, because sure enough, I have now used all RAM. So I have a 16GB flash drive plugged in so just enabled a 1GB Swap file. That should be way more than adequate.

As for the logs - this appears to be saved to the router 'drive' - is there a way to save the logs on the external flash drive instead? Do I need to leave this running in the SSH Terminal or can I 'exit Diversion' and it stays running? Is there an easy test to see if it's working? I suppose any Google ad served site will do achieve that.

I have run the script and all installed ok, I take it that is all I need to do. I am interested in how to analyse or present the logs.

If this works well, this is so awesome I will just leave VPN running permanently on my mobile to route back through this (assuming the VPN doesn't bypass Diversion).

A swap file, what is that?

 

[bitmonster]

A swap file, what is that?

Is that a joke?
If not, it's for RAM overflow. Although when I look at it, it's 100MB of cache so may be fine..
Anyway it's enabled now care of this script, awesome!

Will that Swap persist between reboots?

 

[Skeptical.me]

Is that a joke?
If not, it's for RAM overflow. Although when I look at it, it's 100MB of cache so may be fine..

Nnyway it's enabled now care of this script, awesome!

Will that Swap persist between reboots?

No, not a joke. I'm learning the ropes. I thought that's what it would be, however. I just thought I'd clarify. Thanks!

Edit: How do I make a swap file on a USB drive for my RT-AC86U?

 

[M@rco]

How do I make a swap file on a USB drive for my RT-AC86U?

Select o in Diversion. There's an option to manage a swap file and I'm fairly sure if you don't have one yet (which I doubt), there will be an option to create one.

 

[bitmonster]

The script has an option for it under more options.
I suggest formatting a USB flash drive as EXT4. Which you can do with a free bootable Linux discussion (I suggest Ubuntu) and use the free included partition manager. Then create a Swap file on that. I think gparted is it.

EXT4 is the native Linux file system.

Read up on Linux Swap and partitions. The router is based on Linux so playing with Ubuntu will be instructive.

Or Linux Mint which is even friendlier.

I actually use KUbuntu, much friendlier.

As for this, will Diversion break other DNS filtering?

Damn I'm impressed.. I'd like to know how the lists are updated and from what though.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[Skeptical.me]

Select o in Diversion. There's an option to manage a swap file and I'm fairly sure if you don't have one yet (which I doubt), there will be an option to create one.

Excellent... thanks again @M@rco

 

[M@rco]

Where does the blocklist come from?

When selecting one, you can see which list(s) is/are used. Otherwise check /opt/share/diversion/list/hostslist.

cat /opt/share/diversion/list/hostslist

Will that Swap persist between reboots?

It will be automagically re-activated on reboot.

 

[M@rco]

I'd like to know how the lists are updated

They're automatically updated weekly, by retrieving a current version of the hosts file(s) from the web. You can see the time and weekday on the b line, at the end of the line. See screenshot below:

 

[M@rco]

As for this, will Diversion break other DNS filtering?

I think it will, but I don't use DNS Filtering, so I can't say for sure. AB-Solution, Diversion's predecessor didn't play nice with DNS Filtering and I assume Diversion and DNS Filtering can't work together either for the same reasons. It'll probably be fairly simple to try out though.

 

[bitmonster]

Makes sense seeing this is a DNS type filter.. The other DNS filters would just do the same thing right, so if we do need parental filtering or something can we still assign a specific DNS server to clients.

Where does the blocklist come from anyway, who or what maintains it?

My initial experience was like a flash back to the 90s before all this ad sht took off.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[M@rco]

Where does the blocklist come from anyway, who or what maintains it?

Depends on which list you are using. I believe the Standard install now uses Steven Blacks unified + fakenews + gambling + p0rn list, which is accumulated from several lists. See https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts for more info (and all the flavors available there).

 

[bitmonster]

That's pretty thorough.

I watched the logs fly past. Even phones and tablets sitting idle generating constant hits.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[sentinelvdx]

Open Diversion and write 12 in the main menu area and press enter it'll fetch all the configuration files from the server again.

Thanks, I've done it but didn't help. I think it's time to format the drive and install it all again

Sent from S.G. S9+ Duos

 

[M@rco]

Even phones and tablets sitting idle generating constant hits.

The actual blocks are marked in red when watching the log from within Diversion. But even when everything seems idle, you can actually see blocked queries fly by, because besides ads also lots of tracking and telemetry is being blocked.

 

[bitmonster]

Pretty scary how much is tracked constantly

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[M@rco]

Thanks, I've done it but didn't help. I think it's time to format the drive and install it all again

Unless you want to start fresh, you might try to re-install pixelserv-tls from within Diversion. Or did you try that already?

 

[bitmonster]

Is there a way to just see blocks?
There is a thread talking about piping Diversion logs through Syslog-ng for filtering, maybe that would help.

So this is basically a DNS level filter then? Does it use the router inbuilt filter or something.

It looks like one could leverage adult etc lists too for free parental protection, if this could be applied to specific clients.

But for now I will assume to not touch the DNS Filter option in the Gui.

 

[bluzfanmr1]

I switched from a gmail address to an Apple iCloud email address and now I can't get the email function to work as it did with the gmail address. I am running 384.7_beta2 and the latest Diversion.

Here are the settings I have in Diversion:

  1. Edit From address:   xxx@icloud.com
  2. Edit To name:        xxxx
  3. Edit To address:     xxx@icloud.com
  4. Edit Router name:    RT-AC66U_B1
  5. Edit User name:      xxx@icloud.com
  6. Edit Password:       Apple ID App-Specific Pwd
  7. Edit SMTP Server:    smtp.mail.me.com
  8. Edit Server port:    587
  9. Edit Protocol:       smtp
 10. Edit SSL flag:       --insecure

Each time I get this curl error message:

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   299    0     0  100   299      0    328 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--   328
curl: (56) Failure when receiving data from the peer

 [ ✖ ] sending testmail failed

 Note the curl: error above and check your settings

 [ ! ] Press [Enter] to return to menu

As seen above I did generate an Apple App-Specific Password and I also tried various different SSL flags without any luck. I also tried using just the user name without the @icloud.com and that doesn't matter either. I searched around everywhere looking for an answer but couldn't find one so I'm hoping someone can help.

Thanks for this forum and any help you may provide.

My original post above got flagged for moderation so I think it may have gotten passed over by additional subsequent posts? Has anyone run into this or am I doing something wrong?